Thursday, April 21, 2016

The big fish and Tirta Gangga

Tuesday 19th AprilThere was great excitement this morning as Rob and I were sitting at breakfast watching Judy, Sophie and Jurgen returning from their early morning fishing expedition. Sophie had hooked a huge fish on her hand line and Jurgen had managed to land it safely - an 8 kilo or so beautiful big Mahi Mahi fish - much to the surprise and enjoyment of all the locals.

Oops, don't drop it Sophie!!

Judy did the Balinese lucky lucky blessing with her payment for the boat skipper this morning!

A section of the fish was taken up to the hotel kitchen for our dinner tonight and the boatman took home the rest - a great morning's work for him and an unforgettable fishing moment for Sophie!We spent an hour or so in the pool this morning stretching out some of the overused muscles from our 2 hour snorkeling session yesterday. We had booked a driver to take us up to Tirta Gangga (the Royal Water Palace) about a half hour's drive from Candidasa in the mountains to the NE. Tirta Gangga was built in 1948 by the last Raja of Karangasem. The water palace is a maze of pools and fountains and statues with very strong Chinese decorative elements. It was almost entirely destroyed by the eruption of the nearby Mount Agung in 1963.We enjoyed the cool lushness of Tirta Gangga after the salty heat of our three lovely days at the beach. Rob and I noted the huge change in the place since our last visit over a decade ago when the restoration work was still very much a work in progress. It looks like a finished beauty now!

Lunch at Tirta Ayu restaurant was a highlight and the drive to and from, through the clean and prosperous suburbs of Amlapura and the winding mountain roads in this region, was of great interest too.

We made a special effort to enjoy our late afternoon drinks today, our last evening in Bali. The gin is all gone and only a small amount of Black Label left - it really is time to go home!

The staff at this hotel do their absolute best to make everyone feel special. We admired the set up on the beach below the open air restaurant for the Dutch family's 50th wedding anniversary dinner tonight. It looked to be a rather lovely party. It made us wish we'd had a bit more warning about Judy and Jurgen's 29th wedding anniversary yesterday!

It was a thrill to eat Sophie's fish tonight - beautifully cooked by the hotel chef and teamed with our favourite papaya and pomelo salad. A perfect meal with the freshest fish you could find anywhere!